Product-Service System as an Instrument for Territorial and Urban Planning: From a Literature Review to a Preliminary Methodology

The growing importance of different kind of services in urban and wider contexts highlights the need for integrated, designed and managed service systems. A methodological framework based on Product Service System, can aid in better understanding and organizing services, supporting the identification of strategic urban actions, and prescribing system design choices that respond to citizen needs. This approach can be strategic if applied to the management of services and products in the high complexity of a city, characterized by coping with different layers of digital data and integrated flows of people, economic and social information. This research aims to investigate and classify the literature on PSS for identifying applications of products and services for different scale of territorial planning. A PSS-based methodology is proposed that allows to respond to the complex need of the territorial and urban planning process and to guide stakeholders toward shared and transparent decision-making. The paper is a useful reference for policy makers and academics that want to have a clear and critical understanding of the use of PSS in urbanism and territorial governance.